Colorado Avalanche Talk (aka Avs Talk)

It's almost like they never stopped playing on the road. Tonight the Avalanche had absolutely no offensive jump. Well, at least not until it no longer mattered. With 7 shots in total through the first 2 periods, it's hard to have a favorable outcome.

The only thing that would have changed the tide would have been some timely saves from Theodore. He wasn't able to make any game-changing saves - even though there would have been a lot to save - and really didn't look too sharp tonight.

First Period
After a shot of Parker and Phaneuf jawing at each other during warmup, you had to figure this would be a pretty physical game. It did not disappoint to start as there were some good checks to open up the game.

Scott Parker took his obligatory penalty as he tossed a late elbow at Craig Conroy. Hey Scott, it's Craig frickin' Conroy. Toss your dirty stuff at Phaneuf or Godard if you want but...whatever. The Avalanche killed off the penalty so no harm done in the end.

Ryan Smyth gets the Avs first good chance - and one of their few chances - but Kiprusoff outwaits him, forcing him to go behind the net where he loses the puck. It was already looking like it wasn't the Avs night tonight.

Another Avs chance is stopped by Kiprusoff and leads to a quick breakout by Iginla and Langkow. Iginla feeds the puck to Langkow and he puts a backhand underneath Theodore's armpit. Ugh.

Hannan gets called for a hold but the PK squad does another good job killing off the penalty.

Then Matthew Lombardi *sighs* finds himself wide open in front of Theodore, waits for Theo to make a move and buries it through the five-hole. Lombo should not have found himself that open. Theo should not not have tried to poke check him at that range. Yes, I meant the double negative there.

Second Period
The period opens with Theodore making a big glove save. Of course, if he hadn't coughed out a couple rebounds, he wouldn't have needed to make that save. I'm just sayin'...

Lombardi takes an early penalty and all I thought was "Crap, that'll take 2 minutes off the clock." And that it did. It was nothing doing for the Avalanche again on the powerplay and they really need to solve this beast.

Scott Parker found himself on the ice again, much to his surprise. He spent most of the time jawing at Godard. At one point, the puck was headed his way but he was so busy yapping, he didn't notice it until it was too late and he fanned on the shot. Then Eric Godard draws a penalty on Hannan shortly after. See Parker, that's how you be an effective tough guy. Don't just look mean and yell at people, try and contribute on the ice as well. No chance I'd say that to his face though. Unless separated by bulletproof glass.

Aucoin then puts the Avs up by 3 just as the Hannan penalty had expired. Although the Altidudes - heh - figured Theo had no chance, I think he had plenty of chance. I actually think he got there in time, but he was almost resigned to the puck going in so he didn't do anything after sliding into place.

And then for good measure, Yelle pots one to make it 4-0. It looked like a bit of a softy but it was deflected in close by a sprawling Brett Clark. It still would have been nice for him to snag that one.

Then Scott Parker decides the team needs a spark. Yeah, at 4-0 they need a freakin' flame thrower. Nonetheless, he cross-checks Phaneuf which, as much as I dislike Phaneuf, I hate to see. Phaneuf hammed it up a bit if you ask me but Parker was a tool for getting his stick up like that. Godard then came over and the two scrapped. Long and boring fight it was but it led to 52 minutes in penalties between the two. Godard got the instigator which makes absolutely no sense but I'm not getting into that tonight.

Third Period
Just 3:17 into the third, Joe Sakic finally broke through and got a goal. Phaneuf had just finished dumping Brunette behind the net but the puck popped out right to Sakic and he rocketed it into the back of the net.

Could it be? Another 4-goal comeback in the making? No. Craig Conroy ended fans hopes about 4 minutes later as he buried one under Theodore's arm. Man, a lot of pucks go in under Theo's arms.

There were some more PP chances for the Avalanche, 3 in total, which meant another 6 minutes wasted off the scoreboard.

Late in the third, Richardson took a shot from a real bad angle but it snuck by Kipper. On the replay, you can see Phaneuf caught Kiprusoff's stick in his jersey, thereby lifting his stick and allowing the puck to get by. So both Avs goals were due to Phaneuf which is always nice.

Odds and Ends
- what does it take for some puck possession by the Avs?
- and their version of "cycling down low" doesn't count
- Wolski was on the point again for the PP
- Lombardi shreds the Avs again
- Finger is a strong, strong guy, often just showing Flames players down
- Liles had a strong game where he used his body effectively
- Guite was a scratch tonight to make way for Parker (super!)
- Martin Lapointe has gigantic arms (they showed him lacing his skates before the 2nd game of the doubleheader on CBC and I thought I'd mention it)

Stats
Liles and Clark - oddly reminiscent of Lewis and Clark, isn't it? - were the ice-time leaders with 23:22 and 23:47 respectively. Scott Hannan was only out for 18:40 and can likely thank his 4 PIM for the reduced ice-time.

Hlinka, Sauer and Finger were the only players to be +s in the game. Smyth and Clark were -3 on the night.

7 shots from the D tonight which is good considering they only had 23 in total. Smyth, Arnason and Hannan all had 3 shots.

The Avalanche outhit the Flames 16-14. However I question those stats simply because Clark was credited with 4 hits while Finger was credited with just 1. It's not that Clark couldn't have had four hits, but there's no way Finger had just one.

Related Links
NHL.com Event Summary
TSN Recap
ColoradoAvalanche.com Recap